Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

24
Science and Witchcraft*
Ubi dubium ibi libertas: Where there is doubt, there is
freedom.
Latin proverb
The 1939 New York World's Fair - that so transfixed me as a
small visitor from darkest Brooklyn - was about 'The World
of Tomorrow'. Merely by adopting such a motif, it promised that
there would be a world of tomorrow, and the most casual glance
affirmed that it would be better than the world of 1939. Although
the nuance wholly passed me by, many people longed for such a
reassurance on the eve of the most brutal and calamitous war in
human history. I knew at least that I would be growing up in the
future. The sleek and clean 'tomorrow' portrayed by the Fair was
appealing and hopeful. And something called science was plainly
the means by which that future would be realized.
But if things had gone a little differently, the Fair could have
given me enormously more. A fierce struggle had gone on behind
the scenes. The vision that prevailed was that of the Fair's
* Written with Ann Druyan. The following two chapters include more political
content than elsewhere in this book. I do not wish to suggest that advocacy of
science and scepticism necessarily leads to all the political or social conclusions
I draw. Although sceptical thinking is invaluable in politics, politics is not a
science.
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